Page 232 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

212 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained
me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I
may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of
Sarai.
3 And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after
Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her
husband Abram to be his wife.
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name,
which Hagar bore, Ishmael."

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not
call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless
her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of
her.
17Then Abraham fellupon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall
Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
18 And Abraham said unto God, 0 that Ishmael might live before thee!
19And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou
shalt call his name Issac: and I will establish my covenant with him for
an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.P

Issac suddenly becomes the legitimate (and only begotten) son if Abraham
The first centuryJewish historianJosephus writes of, "Isaac, the legitimate
son of Abraham", and shortly afterwards declares, "Now Abraham greatly
loved Isaac, as being his only begotten, and given to him at the border of
old age, by the favor of God."6 IsJosephus demoting Ishmael to the status
of an illegitimate child, even though Genesis 16:3 proclaims that Sarah gave
Hagar to her husband "to be hiswife"? He declares Isaac asthe only begotten
despite having just discussed Ishmael at length, for the previous three pages.
From Isaac's children onwards the OT describes increasing treachery
amongst the very progenitors of God's chosen people, those whom He
personally forged a covenant with. These stories of betrayal at multiple
levels, enshrined in the Scriptures, can only undermine the reader's con-
fidence in these Biblical figures and in how seriously they took God's
directives to heart.

4 KingJames T-ersion, Genesis 16.
5 Genesis 17.For a discussionon the corruption and interpolation present in Gen.
17,refer to thisworkpp. 256-61.Unlessotherwisementioned all the biblicalquotations
are from the King James Ver.rron.
6 Josephus, Aniiq., Book 1, Ch. 13, No.1 (222).